How to cheat on your boss

How to Cheat on Your Boss

I was lucky enough to take Alexandra and Katherine out to dinner in the city this past Monday night.

We took a trip down memory lane, stopping by the Monkey Bar, where Rich and I had our very first date. We also visited the Carlyle Hotel, the venue for Alexandra’s baby shower back in 2006

— two years before the Great Financial Crisis hit.

When kids are interning in New York City, they quickly learn just how staggeringly expensive it is.

They start to understand why so many people are worried about affordability, and they naturally wonder how they are ever going to make a living in such a costly environment.

I also had coffee with an old friend from business school. We talked about how this younger generation hasn’t yet lived through the kind of major economic shocks that we did—the dot-com bubble, the Great Financial Crisis, and, in my case, the oil bubble crash when we lived in Houston.

As difficult as those times were, each crisis actually helped us and taught us something about ourselves.

They forced us to:

- pivot,

- to focus on what we truly wanted to do and what matters,

- and to never give up - resilience.

So, the inevitable question arises: How should they make money?

I recall being in my twenties and wondering how I was going to make it.

Back then, it was easier to just follow a predetermined path:

- work for three to four years,

- go to business school, and

- return to investment banking.

But I never stopped to ask myself what I really wanted to do.

I always had the desire to start my own business, but when you are young, taking that leap feels entirely too hard, too risky and scary.

So, here is what I would say to young people today: Go work at a small, successful company where you genuinely love the services or products they create.

It might not be the ultimate solution to the macroeconomic affordability crisis, but it helps you focus on developing skills and talents that you can leverage later.

It teaches you to build your own future, as your boss did,

so you don't have to waste time complaining about the kids whose parents can just buy them a pied-à-terre.

And maybe in the future you will have to the skills and talent to start your business.

What advice would you give yourself if you were young again?

Tiffany Kent

Your Friendly Wealth Engagement Guide

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